DIY: Inexpensive Spray Painted Gold Flatware

I’m back with another Modern Handmade Holiday DIY, and this week it’s all about spray paint! If you’ve missed the others, there are metallic napkins and wood veneer trees DIYs, and at the end of this post, you’ll see links to four other bloggers’ projects!

Gold flatware has been all the rage for a few years now. Gold anything, am I right? I’ve had my eye on new pieces since we finished our dining room because now we can actually have people over for dinner, and suddenly our everyday stainless steel set just felt a little blah, and like it just didn’t have the sparkle I wanted for my table setting. Enter Krylon’s General Purpose Metallic Paint and thrift store flatware!

This gold spray paint is the one I use for pretty much everything, so it’s very consistent with all of the gold in my house. I love it! Alright, so here is where this all started: at the thrift store. I went to a local store and picked through their bins of random flatware for about 15 minutes, choosing 10 pieces of each thing (ie: knife, dinner fork, etc…).

At home, I prepped them for spray painting with painter’s tape because no, I’m not crazy enough to paint over the parts that would actually come in contact with food, so this gives a two-toned look to the flatware. Oh, and don’t worry, I moved my coffee out of the way before spraying. No fresh cups of coffee were harmed int he making of this project – I was just really really cold.

I did the back first, let it dry for a couple of hours then flipped them over to do the front… or top… or whatever.

It only took one coat to cover these, which is incredible!

And that’s it! I let these sit untouched for a few days because I was so worried they would get scratched up, but so far so good!

With the exception of the teaspoons, every single piece is different. And I love that SO MUCH!

I should also mention that before I painted these, I cleaned and polished them with Brasso, then I wiped off any residue with vinegar and dried them thoroughly. I have no idea if this was at all necessary, but it saved me from being concerned about cleaning or washing them just after being painted.

Of course, these will only be hand washed, and my kids aren’t allowed to touch them. EVER! haha

Rather than keeping them hidden in a drawer, I put them in our hutch, in some vintage glasses I keep int here as well.

And there you have it, you guys. This project cost me $30 in total, and I think that’s pretty darn decent for 50 pieces of beautiful gold flatware!

For some gorgeous Modern Handmade Holiday DIY projects, check out these lovely ladies and their beautiful spray painted projects!

Hey, I'm Thalita! Daydreamer, serial decorator, mama of twin boys, lover of thrift stores, fuelled by coffee! This is the space where I share my DIY triumphs and failures, as well as interior design inspiration and regular life stuff.